Sam Biddle

Quick: name three things you've ever used Ping for. Exactly. After almost two years of rotting unused like some foul carton of yogurt in our iTunes fridge, the WSJ says Apple is admitting its failure. Phew.

iTunes 10 is all about Ping, Apple's new music social network. Like Twitter, you can follow…
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The WSJ, citing "sources close to the company," says it'll be a quick and clean death for the pseudo-Twitter "music discovery" thingy baked into iTunes:

Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3 and the iOS 6 beta - where it doesn't work, will be gone with the software's next major release, likely scheduled for this fall. And at that point Apple's social networking offerings will shift to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely.

A death of honor befitting a warrior, not a fallow, unbaked social network that bombed the first day it came out. People who made music never used ping. People who listen to music never used Ping. Did anyone at Apple even use Ping? Doubtful, as they might have realized how horrid and superfluous it was, and pulled the plug sometime between its conception and today. Goodbye, little stupid feature we deactivated however we could—yours will be a funeral unattended. Now whoever was working on this infinitesimal stupidity can be put to use for something worthwhile. [WSJ]